Contemporary Photography

Square Magazine

It’s no secret that I am drawn to the square format. I shoot with a Hassleblad, a twin lens Rolleiflex, a Holga and Diana. I recently purchased a Mamiya 7ii but haven’t fully welcomed it into the fold. So when I see square images, especially stunning ones, it makes me very happy. The other day, Christophe Dillinger shot me an e-mail to let me know about Square Magazine, and well, that made me even happier. And, or course, I wanted to know more.

The magazine looks terrific. How did it come about?

One day I woke up and I realised that something was missing in the world… I was producing square format photographs, and most of my friends and fellow photographers were using this format, but it was woefully under represented: there wasn’t any kind of magazine or publication uniquely dedicated to the format for me to peruse. So I decided to create my own.

Tell me about the editors?

There is Yves, who’s the designer. He’s a photographer and a book publisher. There is Carine, who helps us getting the word around and Clara, who’s a French teacher living in Hong Kong and who makes sure that we write properly. And there’s me, who’s trying to get everything running. There’s a few other people working with us on and off, like translators and proof readers. We are all volunteers, we all do it for the love of photography really. I am on a fine art Masters Degree program at Wolverhampton University at the moment, and the others have similar academic achievements.

Why square?

Ah ah… Well, I can’t really answer this question, because I have no idea. I just love the square format. It is sober, elegant, noble, fun… I don’t know 🙂 I’ll answer this question if you can tell me why you like or why hate spinach.

Image by Roger Ballen

Is this a newsstand publication or can it only obtained by subscription?

It is a web publication only, we can’t afford to go paper based: it is very expensive to do this in the UK. We have just published our first book though, a collection of images from various past issues. We want to start exhibiting artists too and we are still looking at a way to produce a newsstand version… maybe next year.

Yeah: the next issue is out on the 15th April, and it’s got Stephen Gill in it as well as loads of great stuff. There’s a new pinhole competition too, and we are launching the magazine in German. So get cracking and square up and send us your stuff: we are always open to contributions.